The rules
- Average true range (ATR): the 14-day average of the true range (the high-low range, extended to the previous close when price gaps), with Wilder smoothing, the same as ATR (14) on FreeCharting.
- Range ÷ ATR: today’s true range divided by yesterday’s ATR. 2× or more counts as a big range day.
- Move in ATRs: the change from the previous close divided by yesterday’s ATR.
- ATR 5 ÷ 50: the average true range of the last 5 days against that of the last 50. 1.5× or more counts as expanding volatility.
- ATR rank: where today’s ATR sits among the last 126 days (about six months), from 0 (lowest) to 100 (highest).
About this setup
- What it is
- The average true range measures how far a market usually moves in a day, gaps included. Comparing today’s range or move with it shows how unusual the day is for that market, whatever its price or usual volatility.
- How traders use it
- Traders watch range expansion days for the start of a new move or a climax at the end of an old one, size positions and stops in ATRs, and look for volatility picking up after a quiet stretch. A low ATR rank marks a quiet market that may be coiling.
- Caveats
- A big range can come from news and reverse the next day. ATR says nothing about direction, and crypto’s forming daily candle can still grow or shrink before 00:00 UTC.
Calculated in your browser from daily candles; crypto’s daily candle is still forming until 00:00 UTC, so today’s values can change. Not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
Which markets can it scan?
Four, picked with the Market buttons above the table. Crypto (the default) scans the 250 busiest USDT pairs on Binance. Crypto perps scans the 200 busiest USDT perpetual futures on OKX. Both are free public data and need no key. US stocks scans about 600 US stocks and ETFs with your own free Alpaca key, and CME futures scans about 25 front-month CME Group contracts (stock indexes, Treasuries, oil, gas, metals, grains, livestock, currencies and CME bitcoin) with your own free Massive key.
Why do stocks and futures need a key?
Stock and futures prices are licensed data, so a website can’t hand them out for free. Alpaca (for stocks) and Massive (for futures) give anyone a free data key. Your key is saved only in your browser and sent only to that provider. See how to get a free Alpaca key and how to get a free Massive key for futures.
Is the data real-time?
Crypto and crypto perps are live from Binance and OKX, on daily candles that start at 00:00 UTC (today’s candle is still forming). Alpaca’s free stock data is 15 minutes behind the market, and Massive’s free futures plan is 8 hours delayed. Turn on auto-refresh next to the results to update the table in place every 30 seconds, minute or 5 minutes.